Thank God for Japan East Railway Company!

March 11, 2011 will be another tragic day Angela and I will never forget.  I started the day on Misawa Air Base, in Aamori Prefecture (Northern Japan) finishing up two weeks of temporary duty.  There were multiple meetings Friday morning that ran late, and I was rushing to check out of the hotel and get to the train station.  I had to get on a morning shinkansen to get back to the Tokyo area in time for a surprise party.  Rushing I caught a taxi to the rural train station to begin my journey, running late and missing my intended bullet train out of Hachinoe.  I did manage to buy some local candy, including the regional cherry kit-kats for Angela, and some water before my train actually left. I bought a reserved seat, sat next to an elder lady, and promptly went to sleep as we sped up to 300mph speeds.

Dozing, I sensed we had hit some turbulence… then I woke up wide awake realizing I was NOT on an airplane. The lady next to me hit me a few times speaking excitedly in Japanese and shaking her hand, the shinkansen immediately jerked to a stop and the earth kept shaking. Realizing it was an earthquake I settled into my seat and waited for it to stop and then resume to the journey, thinking it was only another earthquake (we had several minor ones the week before).  Except I noticed that we had halted on a bridge (Shinkansen’s automatically stop in the event of a seismic occurrence) which made me uneasy and also the duration of the earthquake was long.  On a train that moves, the shaking did not seem that abnormal but I know everyone on land felt it much worse.  The shaking stopped and we sat on the tracks for a few minutes.  Pulling out my iPhone I texted Angela and checked the news and twitter, seeing there were multiple tsunami warnings issued.  Again I was not too concerned, as everytime there is an earthquake off the coast here a warning is issued.  Several minutes passed then the cell phone lines stopped working and the train lost power. Other passengers who had decent cell phone service (read: anyone other than SOFTBANK) started watching cell phone videos and got very excited… I realized later they were watching live NHK feed of the 13meter tsunami washing away countless coastal towns.  I spent some time trying to understand what was happening, but failed and tried to contact Angela, but the phones weren’t really working too well and my battery was being drained.  Then several aftershocks started rocking the train, and it began to dawn on me that this was not an average earthquake.

Several hours passed and we sat, cold, on the bridge. Most people were in business clothes heading to Tokyo for a weekend or home, and had promptly taken naps.  Eventually someone from the train came into each car and made some announcements, but I don’t know what they said.  Needing to talk to someone in English I went to another train car to find two Air Force guys on leave I had talked to earlier. They were sleeping but unconcerned.

As it became later in the day I realized we weren’t going anywhere.  There were no lights to be seen on the horizon, meaning the local area had lost power. I sent Angela a text, saying I was turning the phone off to conserve power, then tried to sleep.  It started snowing, and eventually we were handed blankets and “hot hands” pads in the dark.  Though I thought the hot pads were squid skin, which is sold everywhere in Japan, and while I has hungry, I was not at THAT point yet.  My dinner consisted of several packets of cherry kit kats and the rest of my tiny bottle of water.

I quickly developed a hunger headache that continued to worsen as the situation deteriorated. It was a cold, uncomfortable night.

In the morning several announcements were made, and I gathered we were going to be evacuated off of the train, and bussed somewhere.  Though I didn’t know where we were going, I followed along.  We got off on the tracks on the bridge, and walked what seemed a mile, then down a path to waiting busses. Everyone was calm and helpful.  Onboard the busses were breakfast snacks and bottled water. Driving through rural towns I noticed long, orderly lines outside gas stations and food stores, but the stores were not open.  There was no power I realized as no traffic lights were working.

We arrived at a large city, without power, and were dropped off.  I used the last of my cell phone battery to figure out where I was on google maps and to let Angela know I was ok.  Realizing I was in Morioka, north of Sendai but not reasonably far from Hachinoe, I started figuring out how to get back to Misawa, and at least be apart of my command.  It didn’t take me long to find out the trains were not running, and the busses didn’t have enough gas.  Taxi fares were out of the question, so I followed the line of people to the emergency shelter (Morioka City Theater Hall).  There I joined hundreds of other stranded travelers with locals (who I found out later had lost their homes to the tsunami) in the main auditorium.  While there was no power someone had plugged in a battery to a radio and it was blaring with news updates.  I of course had no idea what was being said. I made up my mind to concentrate more on learning conversational Japanese in the future.  As my headache was pounding, I left the theater looking for a convenience store.  Across the street was a Lawson’s (like a 7-11), and I went and got in a long line out the door.  With no power people were paying in cash.  As I snaked through the line I realized people were buying literally everything there.  All medicines were already sold out, as well as iPhone mobile battery rechargers, so I grabbed a few rice snacks, juice, canned coffee, and beer.  They had already sold out of water.  Looking back on it I am still amazed how orderly the ransacking of the store had been in an emergency situation, and everyone paid for their items! In America I know someone would have broken into the store and stolen whatever they wanted in such a situation… different cultures.

Wandering back to the theater I noticed large maps that looked familiar.  After spending some time in New Orleans after Katrina I recognized the maps as displaying city districts that had been flooded.  While Morioka is inland, it is along a river that the tsunami had crept up and must have washed out some homes and/or a dam broke.  The locals who were now homeless had segregated themselves inside the theater to aisles with large, cheap tatami mats marking their territory.  They were obviously exhausted and much quieter than all the travelers trapped there.  The locals had set up a table offering water, fruit, and cake to us.  I enjoyed several slices of cake and water then went to sit down.  My headache got worse and worse. Then my stomach got upset.

After taking a nap I realized the water we were given might not have been safe to drink.  So I spent the next hour in a pitch black bathroom (no lights) vomiting.  Between the bad water and my subsistence on sugar products no wonder my stomach was so mad at me. I didn’t even drink my beer, I felt awful.  Sometime in this period of time power was reconnected to the City Theater.  I started charging my phone at an empty outlet (they were all immediately swamped). Letting Angela know I was still ok she did a quick translation for headache medicine that I displayed on my iPhone and took it to the desk handing out food.  They read it and handed me a strange powder that I couldn’t read… so I did the responsible thing and downed the powder. Finding all the vending machines powered I used some yen change and got three bottles of water so I knew it was safe.  Feeling a little better I checked on my charging phone.  A great thing about Japan is I could leave my iPhone plugged in and walk away knowing no one would steal it.

The phone lines weren’t working but data network was, so I was finally able to talk to Angela on Skype.  That was when I found out how destructive the tsunami had been and for the first time heard about problems at a nuclear power plant.  Angela was glad to hear from me, and told me about the issues my command had trying to figure out where I was.

A JR Lines East representative gathered all the travelers into the foyer and made a large announcement.  I was talking to the Air Force guys who had discovered a local who knew some English, so we asked him what was said.  To get us home, JR Lines had set up busses to Sendai if that was your original destination, or for those headed to Tokyo we were presented with an elaborate plan.  With the trains on the east coast not running (due to a lack of power and the emerging threat from the Fukushima Nuclear plant meltdown) JR would bus us across Japan to the west coast, then take local trains south along the Sea of Japan to Niigata where we could pick up a Shinkansen into Tokyo’s western end.  Having no other options we prepared to leave at 5am the next day. I tried to sleep, but was still not feeling too well and had a hard time sleeping on the floor. Over the evening TVs were turned on to the news and I saw for the first time the devastation from the tsunami, and the growing concern over the nuclear plant.

The three Americans apparently overslept as we were up early only to find every Japanese traveler in line hours before we boarded busses.  We waited in line and got on our bus eventually, given bottles of brown tea and a bento box.  Then we headed west, away from the damaged coast and radiation and into the mountains.  The roads we traveled on were amazing as we cut through the passes with snow drifts 20feet high, the road literally a tunnel.  There were few cars on the roads until we made it Akita and turned south along the Sea of Japan.  Life was surreal as suddenly there was electricity, motion, life again. We disembarked the busses and got packed on a rickety train, standing room only, south for hours until we reached Niigata.  JR lines handed us what I named the “golden” ticket, a slip of paper with kanji on it that gave us a free pass onto virtually any train.  From Niigata we boarded a bullet train and road into Tokyo station, still fairly oblivious of the damage done.  I was even lucky to grab local lines all the way to our local station, not knowing about the rolling electrical blackouts that had halted most train traffic.  Angela and AJ picked me up and my surreal four hour bullet train journey from Misawa that turned into three days was over.  Only home did I realize the enormity of the disaster but was anxious and proud to get back to work to provide whatever aid we could to the stoic and brave people of Japan.

A new favorite

I've really come to love Ramen since living in Japan.  And not instant ramen, but awesome, homemade, served in a huge ceramic bowl ramen.  I prefer miso based broth, but James often gets a soy based, spicy broth.  The ramen at Japanese noodle shops is very filling, with thick broth, heavy noodles, vegetables, meat, and sometimes eggs.



I crave ramen on cold, rainy days, and with it being the rainy season, I'm craving it quite often.  We have a ramen shop down the road that I enjoy, but my new favorite is about 20 or 30 minutes away.  We probably pass at least 20 ramen shops to get there (and this is a low estimate, trust me) but this ramen is well worth the travel.  Upon entering the ramen shop, you are greeted with a deep bow, and met with an electronic ordering machine.  You insert your money, choose your dinner, and out comes a ticket with your order, which you then give to the wait staff.  I love the ambiance of this particular shop, and I love the food even more.

30 Day Blogging Challenge

That's right folks! The 30 Day Blogging Challenge. As many of you have noticed, James and I have been extremely slacking on the blog over the last year.  It's not that we want to be slackers, but we've lost a little bit of motivation in keeping the blog updated, so we are challenging ourselves with the 30 day Blogging Challenge. We are committing to blogging every day for the next 30 days, so hopefully we will keep it up! Get ready for an exciting 30 days of life updates!  I may or may not count this blog, so it might actually be 29 days. ;) Depends on what's happening in our lives in 30 days.  And on a final note, please don't be confused by the strange order of serious blogs and fun quirky things in Japan...we are just trying to get the blog up and going again. And besides, the strange order is actually much closer to how my brain functions, so enjoy!

Passed out Poodle

AJ experiencing a little bit of Jet Lag....

Happy Japanniversary!

Wow!  Has it really been a year already?  Happy Japanniversary to us!  A year ago today, James and I were stepping off of a plane into an unknown world, wondering if anyone would be picking us up, or if we would be figuring out how to get to our new home on our own.  As I was about to have my first breakdown, we saw someone holding a little piece of paper with our name on it.  My answer to prayer! A two hour car ride later, and we were crashing in our hotel room, too exhausted to think about the adventure that lay ahead.   It seems like just yesterday that I was waking up at 4:00 am (due to the time difference, of course) and exploring our new home.  And now here we are, a year later, starting to piece our lives back together after the March 11^th earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown.  Leaving Japan during the evacuation definitely gave me a greater appreciation for everything I loved about this great country, and I am excited and happy to be back!  It has been such an amazing year, and James and I have been able to experience so much.

And just to give you a sampling of everything I love about living in Japan…..

I love the people, the culture, the food, and hot coffee out of a vending machine.  I love drinking green tea and eating sushi at the sushi-go-round with amazing friends.  I love traveling on the trains and visiting shrines and temples.  I love ordering off of menus I can’t read and I love cooking my own meat at yakiniku. I love celebrating at festivals and watching everyone dress up in traditional clothes.  I love teaching English and I love getting to know all of my students.  I love that my washing machine does everything for me, that I still can’t figure out our solar panels, and that I can boil water in under a minute.  I love our tatami room, our cherry tree, our Japanese maple, and our Japanese plum tree. I love that you see the tip of Mt. Fuji from our balcony.  I love heated toilet seats and Japanese Kit Kats!!  I just LOVE so much about this awesome experience we have been blessed with, and I am so thankful to be here.  So happy Japanniversary to us!

A few of our memories from the last year:

Hiking Fuji-San

SUSHI!!

Golden Pavilion, Kyoto

The Imperial Palace in Tokyo

Yokohama at Night

The Great Buddha in Kamakura

Enjoying the Fall in Japan

Picking up the brush with Shodo 書道

Leaving Japan for such a long period of time made me realize how little time I actually have left in this amazing country.  With a new sense of urgency, I signed up for a few Japanese art classes, including Shodo 書道, Ikebana 生け花, and Chigirieちぎり絵.  Last week, I had my first Japanese Calligraphy class called Shodo.  While I am by no means an artist, I have always loved art, and I am a strong believer in strengthening our art and music programs in American schools.  It is so disappointing that these programs are the first to go in budget situations, and I hope that in the future we will be able to see beyond the budget and focus on educating our nation’s youth to become more whole and inspired human beings.  But enough of my beliefs on America’s educational system.  Back to the art of Shodo.

My class was taught by a woman named Edoyo Sekoh, which is actually her artist name, not her real name.  She holds a degree in Calligraphy from the Tokyo Gakugei University, which I thought was fabulous.  I didn’t even realize you could earn a degree in Calligraphy! A professional Calligraphist….that made my day!  We began the class with an introduction to Shodo: “Japanese writing KANJI with a brush.  Play with color ink.” I like that!  Play with color ink.  “You enjoy writing the Chinese character of Japan with the brush, and making the work today.” And enjoy I did.  We were given a list of kanji we might want to try, and since I am decorating the guest room with some of my “artwork,” I chose friendship友情.

Edoyo demonstrated what we should be doing with orange ink, and then we mimicked her using black ink.  It was really very interesting, and I enjoyed having a professional to learn from.  After each attempt, she would go over ours with orange ink to show us where we needed to improve.



My very first attempt was my best, and I got worse and worse, though I enjoyed it immensely.  After we had practiced our character, Edoyo wrote out our names in Kanji so we could sign our work.  It was amazing how difficult it was to write my name in Kanji.  And you have to write it very tiny.  My name ended up being almost as big as the character I was writing, but I figure it will get better with time.  It was very calming and peaceful to sit there focusing on each brush stroke, and I am really excited to be trying my hand at this beautiful Japanese art.

Back in Nippon 日本

After a very crazy two months, James and I are both back in Japan.  It is difficult to put into words our experiences over the last few weeks, and I have struggled to write anything worthwhile.  I’m sure many of you are waiting for an Earthquake blog, and it will come in the near future.  Know that it has been extremely difficult to write and it will never say or be what I want it to say or be.  But, nonetheless, I feel like we should share a bit of our experiences with you, so be on the lookout for that post.  After the earthquake, James stayed in Japan and I returned to the United States for a few weeks.  It was great seeing friends and family, driving with ease, and shopping at all of my favorite stores, but I was definitely ready to come back to this beautiful country.

Over the past year, I have fallen in love with Japan, with its beauty, its people, its culture.  When I was in the states, a friend asked “what don’t you love about Japan?!”  Believe me, there are things that frustrate me and there are days when I want nothing but to be back in the states, but overall, I love Japan, and I love that we have such an awesome opportunity to live here!  I am very excited to be back and am looking forward to sharing this wonderful country with you through our blog.